Alice is 16 months old!

As of Tuesday, A is officially 16 months! This month flew by and was really a big blur, especially this last week with A’s illness. But prior to that our gal was going strong, getting into everything. She’s at such a curious place right now and it’s a real pleasure to watch her constantly learning and figuring things out.

When it comes to eating, A is definitely a toddler. I wouldn’t say she’s as picky as many of the toddlers, I’ve heard about; she still eats a wide variety of things. But it’s interesting to watch her ebb and flow in terms of what she likes and doesn’t like, because that changes frequently.

For example I made enchiladas on a Monday night. A has eaten these several times and always happily devoured them. This time, however, she barely touched her enchiladas sticking almost exclusively to her rice and refried beans.

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At the end of the week, on Sunday, we joined my sister and her boyfriend for Taco night. While not the exact same, it was an extremely similar flavor profile. This time, in addition to her rice and beans, A went to town on the taco meat, tortillas, avocado etc. she simply couldn’t get enough. Funny how fickle toddlers can be!

I just keep doing what I do- I try to cool a wide variety of foods so that she’s exposed to many thing and I make sure there’s always something she likes at each meal in addition to other things. She’s pretty good about trying things, though maybe not as enthusiastic as she had been. It’ll be interesting to see how meals work once she begins to understand and communicate in English.

Prior to A’s illness she had been doing better with substituting most of A’s bottles with sippy cups (with the exception of the early morning bottle which will be the last step). We really only had one day where she really showed us, by way of a tantrum” that she was not happy to be given a sippy cup.

This was remedied after that by giving the cups of milk with meals instead of on their own after naps. It had been the plan to transition to this all along and A’s big tantrum that day was helpful because it gave us a nice nudge in that direction and everyone was happier as a result.

Unfortunately, with her illness all bets were off and we reverted back to full time bottles for much of the week, but now that A is better, she seems to be doing well with the sippy cups as she previously had been. I plan to attempt to wean her off of the inks at the end of the month- wish me luck!

A is definitely at the juncture where she is wanting to assert her independence as often as possible. This can be very sweet in the sense that she really wants to help in the ways that she’s capable of helping (things like holding the top to my contact case while I put them in each morning and helping to wipe her tray after eating, when we use one).

This can also manifest itself in some not-so-pleasant ways. A now gets agitated if we try to feed her apples sauce, but is perfectly happy to feed herself. I’m actually pretty impressed with how well she uses her spoons and forks but it’s still pretty messy. She also gets easily irritated when she can’t figure something out, but if we try and help her she makes it clear that she’s not happy about that either.

One thing that has become a big part of A’s playtime each day is that she loves to play with Macie. She knows exactly which toys belong to the dog and she’ll take them and walk around to where Macie is hanging out. We’re working teaching her to throw the toy for the pup, which is successful about 25% of the time (but oh-so-adorable when she does it).

Macie often plays along. Sometimes she’ll get the toy and play with it. Others she’ll come and take it from A. A few times she’s even played a light tug-of-war with A before taking it. I’m consistently impressed with how gentle they are towards each other.

Many dogs would get upset if a toddler took their toy from them but not Macie. She just goes with the flow and when she’s had enough she walks away. We’ve gone out of our way to teach A to be gentle with Macie since she was about 6 months old. I’m pretty sure gentle was one of the first words she understood. Now, if A is with us and Macie is laying nearby, A will lightly pet her and pat her. It’s really quite sweet.

Our gal is getting so big. Each day she gets faster and more steady on her feet. She continues to try and imitate words and sounds with varying levels of success (I think much of her speech is still a little ways off). She is constantly testing us, but often in a good natured way with a mischievous gleam in her eye. though toddlerhood isn’t without its challenges, it is still such a pleasure getting to spend our days being her parents!

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